Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter

UMD SCHOOL OF THEATRE, DANCE, & PERFORMANCE STUDIES:

WELCOME HOME , JENNY SUTTER

WEEKEND PASS

The War at Home: 'Basra Boy' at Church Street Theater, 'Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter' at Kogod Theatre

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Amid a recession, domestic political tussles and an ongoing war in Afghanistan, some have called the Iraq war "forgotten." But it's ooming large in the minds of Washington's theater community these days: Just weeks after the National Theatre of Scotland brought its acclaimed "Black Watch" to the Shakespeare Theatre, two more productions aim to raise awareness of the nearly decade-long conflict.

While "Basra Boy" looks at war through the eyes of a new recruit, "Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter" reflects on the consequences of service — and the difficult readjustment to civilian life that often awaits veterans. In the play, onstage at the University of Maryland's Kogod Theatre through Saturday, Marine Jenny Sutter returns home from Iraq with PTSD and minus a leg. Feeling unable to face her family, she settles in at Slab City, an

abandoned Marine barracks camp in California full of colorful characters. The undergrad actors (including Kiara Tinch in the lead role) are about the same age as many of our nation's newest vets. That brings the war's impact home in a visceral way, says director Leslie Felbain. "There are still a lot of people walking around [for whom] the war is not in their immediate lives," Felbain says. "I like pieces that extend beyond just the border of art, where there can be community engagement." Both works examine the war in surprising ways: Neither is actually set in Iraq, and most Americans probably don't picture female soldiers or Northern Irish teens when they think of the troops who defended Baghdad, Basra and other key Iraqi cities. But viewing the war from those largely unheard perspectives offers audiences a chance to confront its complex legacy.

Q&A: Director Leslie Felbain What do you attempt to add to the audience's understanding of the Iraq war?

The focus of the piece is not to address specific politics, but to call attention to honoring the soldiers and their families for the sacrifice they are offering.

The main character, Jenny Sutter, loses a leg. How did you portray her disability onstage?

We created a boot-like prosthetic. It causes a slight shift in how [actress Kiara Tinch] walks. We've done a lot of work on what it means to have phantom limb sensation, to have that kind of neural pain, a kind of aching, and to embrace that character from a physical perspective.

Does the play address the specific challenges female veterans face?

It is an issue in the play, just because that's not usually portrayed. Some of the things she says indicate what she's had to deal with as a woman in the military. She's a single mom, so that's a big issue, [along with] her sense of identity after losing a leg, her sense of sensuality, of beauty, of self-confidence.

How do you think audiences will relate to Jenny?

She's a tough cookie because she's had to be. But she softens. What I love about this piece is it focuses on forgiveness and how, as a community, we all can help each other. I think in the end, the audience will experience the open space of possibility and hope that Jenny ends the play with.

Posted By Katie Aberbach at 12:00 AM on February 17, 2011

Banged up but not broken

By Andrew Freedman Sunday, February 13, 2011

There is a certain loneliness that many of us are lucky enough not to understand. While we sleep comfortably in our beds at night, men and women in uniform are at war, seeing and experiencing the horrors of combat and foreign enemies. When they come back home, their lives have changed forever.

Such is the case for Jenny Sutter, the titular character in Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, the latest play put on by the theatre, dance and performance studies school in the Kogod Theatre at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

Jenny (Kiara Tinch), an injured Marine sergeant who "dreamed of being a hero," arrives back in the United States after a demanding tour in Iraq. Wearing a prosthetic leg and suffering from night terrors after a frightening experience at an explosives checkpoint, she heads to a bus station with nowhere in mind to go.

After arguing with the witty station attendant, Hugo (David Lloyd Olson), Sutter finds a companion in Lou (Gracie Jones), a woman who has found herself chronically addicted to everything from alcohol to petty thievery. Lou has a place to stay, and Sutter needs one, so they take the bus together to Slab City, Calif.

Slab City isn't all it's made out to be — the abandoned Marine Corps base is filled with "freaks and old people." The eccentric population includes Cheryl (Ali Grusell), a hairstylist turned therapist; Buddy (Jeremy Pace), the good-hearted town preacher who got his license on the Internet; and Donald (Thony Bienvenido Mena), a sarcastic loner who considers Iraq to be a "bullshit war." Other colorful characters (Theresa Buechler, Julia Klavans, Jordan Levine, Kathryn Pace, Michael Strassner and Matthew Strote) round out Slab City's inhabitants.

While the residents of Slab City like to think it's a "community based on trust," Jenny wants to work her problems out on her own. The people of Slab City, however, want to give Jenny the homecoming she truly deserves but never received.

The set, a small section of the city, fills the theater with a giant slab stone, a pile of dirt on the floor, cinder blocks lying around, cacti, small bushes and an old, barren flagpole. Chairs surround

It is brilliantly minimalist, as the large slab stands in for the town meeting place, the bus station, Lou's home and several other locations. It is also a stunning comparison to the emptiness that Jenny displays as she fiddles with her cell phone, not sure whether she is ready to answer phone calls from home.

Another interesting prop is Jenny's prosthetic leg, which looks real enough (and uncomfortable — how Tinch wears it the entire time is a mystery) and adds a lot to the character and realism of the story.

The story is a relevant and timely one, and the actors — under the direction of Leslie Felbain — bring Slab City to life. They deliver solemn moments as well as a few instances of comic relief (especially when Grusell is on stage). Everything from Jenny's emptiness to Donald's disgust with the war, as portrayed by Tinch and Mena, respectively, is on pitch. They are all a pleasure to watch.

The only part of the play that weakens the production is playwright Julie Marie Myatt's slightly flawed script. Some characters are not fleshed out enough, and some conflicts seem to go unresolved. Nonetheless, the show's performers and crew are able to overcome the script's shortcomings with their deep, emotional performances and great production value. While the script isn't something that can be changed for a performance, everything else came together under Felbain's direction.

The story is still one worth watching, if only to try to understand the hardships that veterans face and the goodness of people's hearts — even if they are a little off-kilter.

Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter walks that strange line between heartwarming and serious. In the end, audiences will have to find their place on that spectrum, just as Jenny does.

Our journeys may not be as difficult as Jenny's, but how audiences experience it may vary wildly: Some may see it as uplifting, others as sobering (with a hint of humor). But one thing is for sure — the show makes you reflect on these soldiers' experiences, and that may be the most important part.

Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter runs through Feb.19 at the Kogod Theatre in CSPAC. Tickets cost $27, $9 for students.

afreedman@umdbk.com

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